Cavalry
by The Fearsome Anime-Fangirl
Summary: (Armada, although I've shown it to somebody who's never even seen Armada, and he liked it...) Two femmembots show up on Earth to help the Autobots. Fun stuff. Chapter 4's up! Quite a bad day, yes.
1. Entrance

Disclaimer: Next year, Transformers will turn 20. Next year, I will turn 15. Own Transformers, I most certainly do not.  
  
Author's Note: This fic begins in the middle of the episode "Sacrifice", but without the rain, because I decided to leave that out.  
  
Another Author's Note: I'd just like to give a big shout out to Vanishing Point of the Energon Pub/Demiurgic City at for designing Aurora, Nexa, and their Mini-cons for me!

-------

"Transform!"  
  
Megatron looked at the now-transformed tactician. "Where are you going, Thrust?"  
  
"I'm going to go see what Starscream's doing, sir!" Thrust replied, flying off.  
  
"That Decepticon looks like he's up to something. Go get rid of him, Aurora." Megatron turned around, surprised to see two femmes behind him, both wearing Autobot symbols. The light blue one turned to the black-and- gold one.  
  
"But, Nexa, don't all Decepticons look like they're up to something?"  
  
"True, but that one looks like he's up to something in particular," the one apparently known as Nexa replied.  
  
"OK then, one Decepticon, going down! Transform!" Aurora transformed into her alt mode, a jet, and went after Thrust. Nexa looked at Megatron.  
  
"So, you've finally noticed we're here, huh? Took you long enough, we've been standing here waiting for a good long while!"  
  
"Who are you?" Megatron asked, glaring at the femme. She shook her head.  
  
"You don't listen well, either! We just called each other by name in our recent conversation, didn't you notice? I suppose I'll have to repeat our names to you, then. I'm Nexa. That jet that's about to send your little squidheaded friend to the scrap heap is Aurora. Did you catch it that time, or must I repeat it again for you?"  
  
"Oh, I caught it," Megatron replied through clenched teeth.  
  
"Very good. Now..." Nexa said, drawing her gun. "Let the slagging commence."

-------

Thrust knew that was no human's jet tailing him. No, tailing wasn't the right word; tailing suggested the jet was just following him. Thrust knew that was no human's jet chasing him. Thrust knew that was an Autobot, it had to be. He didn't have the slightest clue where they came from, or exactly why they were chasing him, but he knew they were an Autobot, and after him, and that was enough to know to try and excape. But before he had a chance to turn invisible, the Autobot had caught up to him, passed him, and cut him off. They both transformed at the same time and the realization that the sleek, blue jet he'd been trying to escape from was a femme hit Thrust.  
  
"Who are you? Where did you come from?"  
  
"My name is Aurora, and I came from Cybertron, just like you did, silly!" Aurora replied.  
  
"What are you doing here?"  
  
"You sure are fond of asking stupid questions, aren't you?" Aurora replied, smiling happily. "I'm here to be a good Autobot soldier, isn't it obvious? And right now, I'm getting rid of you." She raised her right arm, aiming the gun on her forearm. Thrust transformed into vehicle mod and tried to fly away. He didn't get very far before Aurora's shot hit him in the left wind and he wend down. Aurora lowered her arm, looking a bit disappointed.  
  
"Shouldn't've ran away like that. Makes it far too messy. But then again, he was a Decepticon, I should've expected that he'd run away. He even sounded like a coward! Hmmm.... Nexa must be getting lonely, fighting Megatron by herself, I better go help!" And with that, the femme flew off the way she came.

-------

Down on the ground, Blurr, Hot Shot, and Sideswipe had seen what happened.  
  
"Who was that?" Sideswipe asked.  
  
"I don't know, but she must be on our side, she shot Thrust down," Blurr replied.  
  
"She? Are you sure it's a femme? I couldn't tell."  
  
"Believe me, Sideswipe, that was a femme, I could tell. My optics are better than yours."  
  
"OK. Hey, bro, you OK?" Sideswipe said, turning to Hot Shot, who was still staring at where Aurora had been. Sideswipe's comment brought him back down to Earth. He shook his head to clear his thoughts and smiled at Sideswipe.  
  
"Huh? Oh, yeah, I'm fine. She just reminded me of someone I used to know, that's all."  
  
"Not another someone you used to know that's supposed to be dead, is it? I certainly hope not, Wheeljack's more than enough."  
  
"Nah, last time I checked, she was alive and well."  
  
"Well, she went that way, do you think we should follow her, or go on ahead?" Blurr interrupted.  
  
"I think that we should follow her," Hot Shot replied.  
  
"I agree with Hot Shot!" Sideswipe said.  
  
"Of course. You'd agree with him if he told you to go jump off the tallest building in Autobot City."  
  
"Oh, I've done that before."  
  
"Done WHAT before?" Blurr asked.  
  
"Jumped off the highest building in Autobot City," Sideswipe replied, then he noticed the odd looks he was getting from Hot Shot and Blurr. "Bungee jumping."  
  
"Oh. OK, that works," Hot Shot said.

--------

Megatron fired his Leader-1-gun. Nexa dodged to the left, and returned fire. Megatron blocked the shots with his left arm and fired the Leader-1-gung some more. Again, Nexa instinctively dodged to the left. But this time, she didn't return fire, because to Nexa's left was nothing but a very long drop, and sure enough, she fell.

-------

Blurr did not re-holster his rifle, even though he was quite certain Demolisher was not going to get up of his own accord anytime in the near future. His rifle never should've been holstered in the first place, anyway. He knew there were Decepticons in the area; he should've been entirely ready for an attack. Even though that was more of an accidental intrusion than an attack, he wasn't going to be caught off guard like that again. Although it was Hot Shot that was caught off guard, he still should've had his rifle out and ready. It was a stupid mistake, and even though it hadn't really caused any damage this time, Blurr resolved not to let it happen again.  
  
"Are you OK, bro?" Sideswipe asked Hot Shot. Hot Shot opened and closed his right hand experimentally, ignoring the small sparks coming from the wound Demolisher had inflicted, and nodded.  
  
"Yeah, I'm fine. It's only a little more than a scratch, really. Thanks, Blurr, I owe you one." Blurr shrugged.  
  
"It was nothing. What's wrong with you, Hot Shot? You shouldn't have gotten caught off guard like that. Demolisher shouldn't even have had a chance to fire."  
  
"Sorry. I was just thinking, that's all. I guess I got a bit distracted."  
  
Blurr let loose a small sigh to himself. No use in trying to press the matter right now. Maybe later. "OK, let's go."

-------

"Oof! Gotcha! Really, Nexa, I'd think you'd know you can't fly by now! Good thing I arrived in time to catch you, huh?" Aurora said cheerfully.  
  
"Aurora," Nexa said pausingly. "Just... Get. Me. Down."  
  
"Hmm? Oh, yeah!" Aurora replied with a giggle. "You're afraid of flying! It totally slipped my mind!"  
  
"I... am not... afraid... of flying. I just... severely... dislike it. You would, too... if you ... couldn't. Now, I repeat. Get. Me. Down."  
  
"OK. I assume you didn't beat up Megatron?"  
  
"Oh, no, Aurora, I beat him up! Then I decided to jump off a cliff for fun! Think about it!"  
  
"Well, at least you forgot that we're flying."  
  
"Don't remind me."  
  
"Don't worry, Nexa, I won't drop you! See, we're here." Aurora dropped Nexa, who looked very relieved, onto the cliff where Megatron still was.  
  
"Finally!" Nexa exclaimed.  
  
"Longest 30 seconds of you life, huh?" Aurora asked.  
  
"As a matter of fact, I believe it was," Nexa replied, however further conversation was interrupted by a blast from Megatron. Nexa dodged off to the side, while Aurora merely flew out of the way.  
  
"Temper, temper!" Aurora said, waving her index finger scoldingly, to which Megatron responded with some more rounds from his Leader-1-gun, all of which Aurora neatly dodged. Then Megatron discovered 1st-hand exactly why it's a bad idea to leave an opponent unsupervised when Nexa planted a few rounds into his backside. Angered, the larger transformer whipped around as fast as his bulk would allow him and opened fire on Nexa. Before he fired much, however, another set of rounds was fired into his backside, this time by Aurora. Megatron quickly realized that there was no way he could win this situation.  
  
"Decepticons, retreat," the destructive leader muttered into his comm. link before warping back to the Decepticon's moonbase.

-------

"So, exactly why did we retreat? That's not part of the plan, is it? And would you mind helping me out here? Demolisher isn't what I would define as a lightweight," Wheeljack asked Cyclonus as he struggled to move the unconscious Decepticon away from the warp gate's exit. Cyclonus shrugged apathetically.  
  
"Hey, why don't you just leave him there? It'd be really funny if somebody came in and tripped over him, wouldn't it? Yeah, just leave him there! We'll move him later, after somebody trips over him! It'll be great!" Cyclonus cackled to himself at the idea. Wheeljack opened his mouth as if to reply when the warp gate activated and Thrust appeared, closely followed by Starscream, who was holding the Star Saber. Thrust stumbled out of the gate and tripped over Demolisher, landing at Wheeljack's feet with a crash, which caused Cyclonus to break out in full mad cackle. Thrust slowly got to his feet, giving Demolisher a kick along the way. Except for Cyclonus' maniac laughter, the warp room was silent.  
  
Then, without warning, Thrust bodily launched himself at Wheeljack, tackling the younger Decepticon to the floor. The ex-Autobot, startled as he was at the sudden assault, was not long in fighting back against the cone-headed transformer. Cyclonus started cheering for Wheeljack, while Starscream watched the scuffle in silence, still standing in the warp gate. Wheeljack threw Thrust off him and scrambled to his feet, drawing his gun and pointing it at the tactician's head in one quick movement.  
  
"What was that for?!" Wheeljack asked angrily. Thrust glared back at him.  
  
"You think you're clever, don't you?" Thrust said contemptuously.  
  
"What are you talking about?!"  
  
"Demolisher. You put him there, didn't you? Just so I'd trip over him! You got a kick out of that, didn't you? You thought I wouldn't catch you! You thought I wouldn't notice you standing right there! Do you think I'm stupid?" Thrust shouted accusingly.  
  
"I think you're crazy, that's what I think!" Wheeljack shot back.  
  
"You haven't got much room to talk, you psychopath!" Thrust countered.  
  
"You have got to be kidding! And if I was a psychopath, do you really think it'd be wise to accuse me like that?" Thrust just glared silently at Wheeljack in response. Wheeljack sighed and sheathed his gun. He walked over to the warp gate, grabbed Demolisher's arm, and began dragging him away again.  
  
"What are you doing?" Starscream asked Wheeljack. Wheeljack ceased dragging Demolisher and looked at Starscream.  
  
"Taking Demolisher to CR. In case you hadn't noticed, he needs it," he answered.  
  
"Well, at the rate you're going it's going to take a long time."  
  
"It's still faster than if I just leave him there for someone else to get."  
  
"Hmmm... you do have a point there," Starscream said, nodding to himself. The Seeker then released the Star Saber, which split into the Air Defense team. He strode out of the warp gate, the Mini-cons following, and grabbed hold of Demolisher's other arm. Wheeljack looked at him, confused.  
  
"What are you doing?"  
  
"Helping. In case you hadn't noticed it, you need it." Wheeljack chuckled a little to himself and nodded.  
  
"Fair enough."

--------

"OK, so that's 1.5 me, .5 you for this planet, right?" Aurora asked. Nexa nodded.  
  
"Looks like I've got some catching up to then, huh?" Aurora giggled and nodded, then Nexa held her hand up for silence.  
  
"What is it, Nexa?" Aurora asked.  
  
"I heard something." The two femmes stood in silece for a while, and then Nexa nodded. "This'll make us even," she said as she aimed her gun down the path and fired.

-------

"What in the name of Primus was that?" Sideswipe asked, shaking.  
  
"Gunshot," Blurr said matter-of-factly, however no one took much notice of him.  
  
"Sideswipe, calm down," Hot Shot said.  
  
"Calm down?" Sideswipe asked. "Calm down?! I nearly get my head blown off and you expect me to-"Hot Shot put his hand over Sideswipe's mouth before Sideswipe got much farther.  
  
"Yes, actually, I do, because if you don't, you'll give our position away. Now, Sideswipe, have you calmed down now?" Sideswipe nodded and Hot Shot removed his hand. In the silence that followed voices floated down the path.  
  
"Did ya get 'em?"  
  
"Probably."  
  
"I think you should go check."  
  
"OK, now listen. I want both of you to be quiet and leave this to me, OK?" Hot Shot asked. Blurr and Sideswipe nodded. "Hey, Nexa, you're supposed to fire at Deceptiocns, not Autobots! Good thing your aim's bad, or you might have some serious explaining to do!" the yellow mech shouted, resulting in looks of surprise from his companions and the distinct noise of something being dropped followed by muttered curses.  
  
"Hot Shot? Is that really you?" Aurora shouted.  
  
"Yup!" Hot Shot shouted back.  
  
"Hmmm... Pity I missed then," Nexa said.  
  
"Nexa!" Aurora shouted.  
  
"Fancy running into you two here, huh?" Hot Shot shouted, obviously ignoring Nexa's comment. "Hey, the rest of the crew's not here, are they?" He added, much less jovially after a small pause.  
  
"Oh, no, it's just us two," Aurora replied.  
  
"That's odd. Any idea why?" Hot Shot asked.  
  
"Nope."  
  
"Hey, do you know what else is odd? That you've managed to make it this far without doing something stupid enough to get you killed!" Nexa said snidely.  
  
"Nexa!" Aurora shouted.  
  
"Well, it's amazing that you haven't shriveled up and died of old age yet!" Hot Shot shot back.  
  
"Hot Shot!" Aurora shouted.  
  
"Hey, why don't you quit hiding behind some rock and come out here and talk to us to our faces?" Nexa demanded.  
  
"Nexa!" Aurora shouted.  
  
"What?" Nexa shouted back.  
  
"Put that gun away!"  
  
"Oh, fine, fine. Not like I was aiming to kill, anyway."  
  
"Nexa!" Aurora shouted again. Hot Shot chuckled to himself a little.  
  
"Is it safe to come out now?" he asked, smiling.  
  
"Oh, yeah, of course it is. Don't pay any attention to Nexa," Aurora answered.  
  
"I try not to," Hot Shot replied, standing up. He gestured to Sideswipe and Blurr to follow him. The yellow Autobot led them up the path to where Aurora and Nexa were. Nexa glared at them. "Hi," Hot Shot said with a small wave.  
  
"Hot Shot!" Aurora squealed happily, ensnaring the young 'bot in a hug before he had a chance to do anything about it.  
  
"Ummm... it's, uh, nice to see you, too, Aurora," he said, obviously embarrassed.

--------

Well, that was fun wasn't it?

Hot Shot: I really hate you sometimes... -.-

AF: Oh, come on, Hot Shot, you've got an attractive femmebot glomping you! What's to be upset about?

Hot Shot: I'll never hear the end of this from Sideswipe, for one...

Sideswipe: You better believe it!

Hot Shot: See?

AF: Oh, just you wait, Hot Shot, it gets even better...

Hot Shot: Like what?

AF: Well, in the next chapter, most of the rest of the Autobots show up, Jetfire starts taking some small steps towards driving Optimus loony, Nexa makes even more snarky comments, and there's blackmailing! What's not to love?


	2. Introductions

Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers, but I did come up with Nexa, Aurora, and their Mini-cons. Well, Vanishing Point from the Energon Pub/Demiurgic City over at Seibertron helped with the design concepts, but other than that they're mine. Yeah.  
  
Author's Note: Man, you people here at FF.N are SOOOO lucky! This chapter actually took me **6** whole months to write! O.O Yi. I'm so slow...

----------  
  
"I'm so glad you're OK, Hot Shot!" Aurora said, releasing Hot Shot from her hug. "I was worried that after you'd left, you went and got yourself killed by the first Decepticon you saw!"  
  
"I'll bet you he tried, though," Nexa said.  
  
"Nexa!" Aurora shouted.  
  
"Oh, come one! You know I'm right!"  
  
"Even if you are, that's a very mean thing to say, Nexa!"  
  
"Hey, I'm just telling it like it is. Besides, you're the one who brought it up."  
  
"Ohh, you've got me there, I did bring it up. Anyway, who are your little friends, Hot Shot? Aren't you going to introduce us?"  
  
"Hmm? Oh, right. Aurora this is Blurr and this is Sideswipe. Guys, meet Aurora. She's a member of my old platoon. And not anything else you may be thinking," Hot Shot said, adding the last part very sternly.  
  
"A-HEM!"  
  
"And that's Nexa. Don't pay any attention to her; she's just a jerk. It's her purpose in life."  
  
"At least I've never been promoted for being an idiot!" Nexa shot back.  
  
"Nexa! You know that's a sensitive subject!" Aurora shouted.  
  
"So? He's going to have to get over it eventually."  
  
"Well, you're not really helping any!"  
  
"What makes you think that I intend to?" Nexa asked. Aurora shook her head in a why-me fashion.  
  
"I know I've probably asked this a hundred times by now, but why can't you two just get along?"  
  
"Well, maybe if she stopped making cruel, heartless comments all the time," Hot Shot said.  
  
"Well, maybe if he stopped doing stupid things that merit cruel, heartless comments all the time," Nexa retorted. Sideswipe turned to Blurr.  
  
"Y'know what? I don't think they're very good friends."  
  
"No, really?" Blurr asked sarcastically.

---------  
  
"Have you found them yet, Jetfire?" Optimus asked. Jetfire sighed as he continued cruising through the air.  
  
"No, sir, not yet."  
  
"Well, keep looking."  
  
"Hey, I'll find 'em. Quit stressin' 'bout it."  
  
"Jetfire?" Optimus asked.  
  
"Yes, sir?"  
  
"Do you realize what you just said?"  
  
"Umm, yeah. I told you to calm down."  
  
"How do you expect me to calm down? We've lost all contact with base and Hot Shot, Blurr, and Sideswipe have gone missing. It's not like those three to alleviate from a plan."  
  
"You mean it's not like Blurr to let Hot Shot and Sideswipe talk him into alleviating from a plan. Trust me, Optimus, they've got a good reason for disappearing."  
  
"Like getting killed?"  
  
"Come on, Prime, don't talk like that. They can take care of themselves."  
  
"What about Megatron?" Optimus asked. The sudden strange question knocked the second-in-command off his guard.  
  
"What about him?"  
  
"Well, think about it, Jetfire. Where was Megatron during this fight? The only Decepticons we saw were Starscream and Thrust. Megatron had to have been somewhere. What if they ran into him?"  
  
"The thy'd have beaten the stuffing out of him. You've got to have a little faith, Optimus. The Decepticons that can beat Hot Shot and Blurr when they're working together are few and far between and Sideswipe's smart enough to know to stay out of a fight with Megatron. And it's very improbably that they ran into Megatron in the first place. Now, repeat after me. There's nothing to worry about."  
  
"There's nothing to worry about."  
  
"Everything will work out OK."  
  
"Everything will work out OK."  
  
"Hot Shot, Blurr, and Sideswipe are fine."  
  
"Hot Shot, Blurr, and Sideswipe are fine."  
  
"The communication situation with the base will be resolved."  
  
"The communication situation with the base will be resolved."  
  
"I will calm down."  
  
"I will calm down."  
  
"And quit worrying about what I have no control over."  
  
"And quit worrying about what I have no control over."  
  
"Now, did a word of that sink in at all?" Jetfire asked.  
  
"Yes. Thank you, Jetfire."  
  
"Hey, no problem, sire. I'm your second-in-command. Keeping you sane is my job."  
  
"You're very good at it."  
  
"Thanks, sire. Sooo, can I have a raise?"  
  
"Jetfire!"  
  
"What?"  
  
"This is no time to be thinking about your paycheck! You get paid plenty, anyway!"  
  
"Yeah, but I could always be paid more!"

---------  
  
Blurr looked idly into the sky, seeking something to focus his concentration on other than the nigh-on constant bickering of Hot Shot and Nexa and the fruitless peace-making attempts of Aurora. He found something that caught his interest. The sharpshooter focused his optics on the object, attempting to identify it. "Hmm?" he said softly to himself, "What's that?" He didn't say it soft enough, however, that Sideswipe didn't hear him. The younger transformer took the welcome distraction.  
  
"Huh? What's what?" Sideswipe asked, looking in the direction in which Blurr's gaze was focused. "That little back dot? Maybe it's a bird. It could be a plane though." Sideswipe's loud statement caught the attention of the two femmes and Hot Shot.  
  
"No, it's definitely not a plane," Aurora said. "Its flight pattern is far too erratic to be a plane's."  
  
"So what is it?" Nexa asked.  
  
"I'm not sure. I'll go find out. Transform!" The jet set off to identify the unidentified flying object. After she departed, Hot Shot made his way over to Blurr and Sideswipe.  
  
"So, what's new with you guys?" he asked in an attempt to start a conversation. Blurr, however, wasted no time in getting to the point.  
  
"What's the deal here, Hot Shot?" he asked in his usual blunt manner.  
  
"Yeah, you never told me you had a girlfriend, bro!" Sideswipe added in.  
  
"Girlfriend? What? You mean Aurora?" Hot Shot asked. Blurr and Sideswipe nodded. "Oh, no way!" he said, shaking his head. "Aurora might not look it and she definitely doesn't act it, but she's old! She's at least twice my age, if not three times! She's just a friend."  
  
"That hug she gave you seemed like more than a 'just a friend' hug to me," Sideswipe insisted.  
  
"Well, it's been a while since I last saw here. And I left without saying good-bye. Those are the only reasons I can think of. Well, other than that's just the way she is, but you won't settle for that, will you?"  
  
"You left without saying good-bye? Why?" Sideswipe asked.  
  
"Wheeljack," Blurr answered for Hot Shot. Hot Shot merely nodded.  
  
"Oh," Sideswipe said flatly. "oohhhh..." he repeated, more slowly after the facts had sunk in. Hot Shot nodded again.  
  
"But you still haven't completely disproved the hypothesis," Blurr said.  
  
"Oh, PLEASE!" Nexa interrupted. "Aurora's got MUCH better taste than that! And a piece of advice: if you want to have a private conversation, go where you can't be heard, or at least talk quietly." A further barrage of insults was halted by the return of Aurora.  
  
"Hi, guys, what'd I miss?" she asked cheerfully.  
  
"Oh, not much," Nexa replied. "They were just talking about you," the femme added, nodding her head in the general direction of the three 'bots. Aurora giggled.  
  
"I'd be flattered if they weren't so young!"  
  
"Told you so," Hot Shot muttered to Blurr and Sideswipe.  
  
"Oh, shut up!" Blurr muttered back.  
  
"So, what was that thing, Aurora?" Nexa asked.  
  
"Hmm? Oh, yeah!" Aurora opened her hand to reveal Lazerbeak. "Isn't it cute?" she asked.  
  
"Cute? Definitely not the word I'd pick to describe it. The word I'd pick's a lot closer to really, freakin' ugly," Nexa replied.  
  
"Yeah, that's what I figured you'd say," Aurora said, seemingly too absorbed in her inspection of Lazerbeak to look directly and whom she was addressing. "But I didn't say it was cute because of how it looked. What makes it cute is its simplicity. Its technology is so basic, it can't really help but be cute!" While Aurora was saying this, Lazerbeak's head was moving about, inspecting the surroundings. When Hot Shot fell into its line of vision, the small, orange device unfolded its wings and flew over to him. The yellow Autobot smiled and offered a finger to the bird-like robot, which landed on it.  
  
"You guys all OK?" Hot Shot asked. Alexis' voice answered him in the affirmative.  
  
"Must be basic technology, if Hot Shot can operate it," Nexa whispered to Aurora, who giggled.  
  
"No, silly, he's not operating it. Y'see, that little thing is basically a flying cross between a radio and a video camera. Whoever's operating it is far away, but thanks to that thing they can see what's going on, hear what's going on, and make comments about what's going on without being in any danger from what's going on. Understand?"  
  
"Your ability to explain such things without ever using confusing technical terms will never cease to amaze me," Nexa said in answer to Aurora's question. Aurora merely giggled again.  
  
"Hey, Hot Shot, who are THEY?' Rad asked.  
  
"Yeah, dude, I've never seen them before!" Carlos added.  
  
"You mean Aurora and Nexa? I guess you could say they're old friends of mine."  
  
"Old? I heard that, Hot Shot!" Nexa shouted.  
  
"Oh, I'm sure he didn't mean it THAT way, Nexa," Aurora said.  
  
"Really? Because I think he did," the more ill-tempered of the pair replied. While the two femmes furthered their discussion, Hot Shot continued his conversation with the kids via Lazerbeak.  
  
"Hot Shot, do you know where Optimus is?" Alexis asked.  
  
"Ummm, no, actually, I don't," the Transformer replied, scratching his head in thought. "You mean you don't know?"  
  
"Yes, unfortunately," Alexis answered, "It's a long story, so I'll explain it later, but basically, we lost contact for a while, and now we have no idea what's going on."  
  
"I wish I could help, but I don't really know what's going on myself," Hot Shot said.  
  
"We'll keep looking, then," Alexis said as Lazerbeak took off.

--------  
  
"Jetfire? Jetfire. Jeeetfiiiiire... Jetfire! For Primus' sake, if you're going to leave you comm. link on, you could at least answer me when I try to talk to you!" Optimus muttered into his own comm. link. Jetfire started whistling. "Jetfire! Stop ignoring me!" Jetfire merely continued whistling. "I know you can hear me, Jetfire, so why aren't you responding?"  
  
"I can't deal with you right now!" Jetfire said with a slight singsong tone.  
  
"Jetfire!" Optimus shouted. Jetfire, however, merely started whistling again. "One of these days, Jetfire, one of these days..." the leader of the Autobots said, his voice trailing off.  
  
"Oh, hey, lookit that!" Jetfire suddenly said. Optimus, startled by Jetfire's sudden communication with him, took a while to respond.  
  
"Look at what?" he asked.  
  
Jetfire chuckled in response, then said, "Hey, Prime, remember what I told you?"  
  
"Told me? What? The only thing you told me was that you can't deal with me!"  
  
"Oh, no, before that! I told you our problems would be solved, didn't I?"  
  
"Well, I suppose so, in a way, yes. What's your point?"  
  
"Well, I just found Lazerbeak," Jetfire said before promptly shutting off his comm. link.  
  
"Jetfire!" Optimus shouted into his comm. link. "Jetfire! I swear, sometimes he can be such a pain in the processor..."  
  
"Jetfire being an annoyance?" Scavenger asked. Optimus sighed.  
  
"I'm beginning to think he enjoys driving me insane," he said. The large, green robot chuckled.  
  
"I don't doubt it, Prime. I don't doubt it."

----------  
  
"Do they ever stop arguing? Or is this just a special occasion?" Sideswipe asked.  
  
"Well, of course they don't argue constantly, silly! It's just that it's been a while since they saw each other, so I guess you could say that they're making up for lost time!" Aurora replied cheerily.  
  
"Must be a lot of lost time," Blurr muttered to himself.  
  
"Hey, did you just hear something?" Aurora asked.  
  
"Hear what?" Blurr asked back.  
  
"I didn't hear anything," Sideswipe said.  
  
"Well, I definitely heard something. I'm gonna go check it out. Make sure those two," Aurora paused here to point her thumb at Hot Shot and Nexa, "don't kill each other or something while I'm gone, OK?"  
  
"Sure," Blurr replied, sounding suspiciously like if Hot Shot and Nexa did try to kill each other he wouldn't do a thing to try and stop them.  
  
"Good enough, I suppose," Aurora said, leaving.

---------  
  
"Are you sure they're here?" Jetfire asked. Lazerbeak, perched on one of Jetfire's wings, looked around.  
  
"They should be in the general area," Alexis answered.  
  
"The general area. Greeeaaat..." Jetfire said sarcastically.  
  
"What's so great about the general area? Granted, the scenery IS rather pretty, but it's rather boring, too. You've seen one tree; you've seen them all, y'know? It's no Cybertron, that's for sure!" Jetfire turned around to see Aurora standing behind him. "Hi," she said with a smile and small wave. Then, as though she just realized something, she executed a smart salute and added, "uhh... sir? You ARE the second-in-command, right?"  
  
"Ummm... Yeah," Jetfire started out, still rather startled, but he quickly regained his composure. "Err, yes! Yes, I am. But really, you don't need to call me 'sir.' My name's Jetfire. What's yours, or can I just call you 'Absolutely Gorgeous?'"  
  
Aurora giggled in reply then said, "My name's Aurora, and, quite frankly, I'd prefer that you call me that rather than 'Absolutely Gorgeous.'"  
  
"Well, Jetfire, I see that you're sickeningly flirtatious even when you're sober." Nexa paused for a moment here, then continued with, "You ARE sober right now, right?"  
  
"YES!" Jetfire shouted in a very insulted tone of voice.  
  
"That's very good to know," Nexa said, sounding only slightly surprised. While this short exchange passed, she had placed herself between Aurora and Jetfire.  
  
"What are YOU doing here?" he asked. Nexa stared at him in shock for a second.  
  
"Oh, for the love of... I'm on vacation!" she said sarcastically. "Why do you think I'm here, stupid?! Honestly, sometimes I wonder how a numbskull drunkard like you ever became the second-in-command of the Autobots."  
  
"Wow, she's really digging into him, isn't she?" Sideswipe asked.  
  
"Yep," Hot Shot said, grinning.  
  
"But is that stuff about Jetfire true?" Blurr asked.  
  
"Yep," Hot Shot replied, still grinning.  
  
"He sure seems happy, doesn't he?" Sideswipe asked Blurr. Blurr nodded.  
  
"I wouldn't be surprised. After all, Nexa's started picking on someone else, hasn't she?" he answered. Sideswipe giggled.  
  
"That is true, I suppose," he said.  
  
"But not the reason I'm happy," Hot Shot interjected.  
  
"I thought you weren't paying any attention to us," Sideswipe said.  
  
"Well, you thought wrong," Hot Shot replied, smiling.  
  
"So, what is it that's making you so happy?" Blurr asked.  
  
"Jetfire's getting told off for drinking too much," Hot Shot answered with a grin. "Unfortunately, I doubt that he'll actually take it to heart," he added with a sigh.  
  
"Why do you care?"  
  
"Well, normally, I wouldn't, but drinking, especially as much as Jetfire and Smokescreen drink, is a very, very expensive habit, and after they've blown their paychecks on it, I foot the bill."  
  
"Why do you do that?" Sideswipe asked.  
  
"I... have my reasons."  
  
"Blackmail?" Blurr asked. Hot Shot sighed.  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"What'd you do?" Sideswipe asked.  
  
"Sideswipe, if I was OK with people knowing about it, it wouldn't make very good blackmail material, would it?"  
  
"No, I guess it wouldn't. But now I really want to know what it is!"  
  
"Well, if you agree to buy all of Jetfire's and Smokescreen's drinks for the rest of their lives, then I'm sure they'd be all too happy to tell you what it is, 'cuz you're NOT finding out from me."  
  
"But I can't afford to buy all of their drinks for the rest of their lives!" Sideswipe protested. Hot Shot sighed again.  
  
"At the rate they drink, pretty soon I won't be able to afford it, either."  
  
"So they drink a lot?" Blurr asked.  
  
"Tons. Absolutely tons. Which is why I'm hoping that some of what Nexa's saying is sinking in. 'Cuz, y'know, I kinda like my paycheck, and I'd really prefer to keep it."  
  
"Hey, Jetfire, where's Prime?" Nexa asked.  
  
"Prime? Prime! Oh, slag, I totally forgot about him!" Jetfire exclaimed. Nexa sighed and uttered one word.  
  
"Idiot."

--------

Yay for mindless filler!

Hot Shot: I can't believe you made people wait 6 months for this garbage...

AF: Bah. I intend upon having the third chapter up quicker. .

Hot Shot: Sure you will... It's been 2 months since you finished this chapter, y'know?

AF: . . Ummm... I've no idea what you're talking about... Anyway, come back for chapter 3! Smokescreen and Red Alert finally show up!

Smokescreen: Finally!

Red Alert: Hey, at least you've been mentioned, it's like I don't even exist or something!

AF: No worries, Red! The next chapter's all about you! And your temporary loss of sanity! And Aurora! Yay!

Red Alert: O.o Oh, dear...


	3. Cabin Fever

Author's Note: -- denotes a translation of Mini-con-speak.

------

"Hey, Red, are you OK?" Smokescreen asked. Red Alert looked up from his work.

"Yeah, I'm fine. What makes you ask?"

"Well, maybe it's just me, but you seem really uptight lately."

"I'm not uptight."

"Are you sure? 'Cuz it sure seems like something's been getting under your armor ever since Nexa and Aurora showed up. See? Right there."

"See what? Right where?"

"You flinched when I mentioned Nexa and Aurora! See? There you go again!"

"I did not flinch!"

"Don't deny it, Red Alert, you definitely flinched!"

"I did no such thing," Red Alert said, utilizing an end-of-conversation-because-I-said-so tone of voice. Smokescreen shrugged it off.

"Whatever you say, Red." Red Alert continued his work in silence for a few minutes, then stopped and sighed.

"Smokescreen?" he asked.

"What?"

"Do you think that Lazerbeak's simple technology?"

"What? Are you kidding, Red Alert?"

"I'm entirely serious. Is Lazerbeak simple?"

"No way! Lazerbeak's not even close to being simple technology!" Smokescreen said, placing his hand of a wall. "You know what this is?"

"It's a wall, Smokescreen."

"That's right, a wall. The very definition of simple technology. After all, technology is something that is built to do something, and walls do all sorts of stuff. Lazerbeak's a lot more complicated than a wall, right?"

"Right, Red Alert said with a slight smile.

"What brought that up, anyway?"

"Nothing. It's nothing," Red Alert said, shaking his head.

"Whatever you say, Red."

------

"Whatcha doin'?" Aurora asked, looking over Red Alert's shoulder.

"What are you doing in the med bay?" Red Alert asked.

"I'm finding out where stuff is around here. So whatcha doin'?"

"I'm rearranging my tools."

"Oohhh..." Aurora said. She watched Red Alert silently for a few minutes, and then said, "That's the third time you've moved that tool."

"What?" Red Alert asked, putting the said tool away and taking out another one.

"The tool you just put away. That was the third time you moved it. And this is the fourth time you've moved that tool," Aurora replied, pointing at the tool that Red Alert was holding. Red Alert didn't say anything, but he exchanged the tool for another one. Aurora informed him that it was the second time he'd moved it. He put that tool down, picked up a different one, and was subsequently informed that he'd moved it four times already. Thoroughly annoyed by now, the medic picked up yet another tool, but this time was met with silence.

Confused he looked at Aurora and asked, "You're not going to point out how many times I've moved this?"

"Actually, this is the first time you've moved that tool," the femme said, as Red Alert got another tool. "But it's the sixth go for that one." This comment was met with silence, which Aurora had become accustomed to, but Red Alert also stopped moving. Although she had kept her distance throughout the mostly one-sided exchange, Aurora lightly touched Red Alert's arm as she asked him if he was OK.

"I'm fine," Red Alert said coldly, quickly moving his arm away and resuming his reorganization. Aurora crossed her arms and glared extremely sharp and pointy daggers at him, her displeasure at his reply painfully evident. She stood there for a while, and then, as though she couldn't find the right words to express her annoyance, she glared one particularly nasty glare at the medic and then left the med bay.

-----

"Hey, Aurora, what's wrong? You look angry," Hot Shot asked as Aurora stormed into the control room. She looked at him and automatically switched into bright and happy mode from her angry musings.

"Nothing's wrong, Hot Shot," the femme said brightly. "I'm not mad at anything." The yellow Autobot was about to voice his doubts when the Mini-con signal went off. "What's that?" Aurora asked.

"That's the Mini-con signal."

"And standard procedure is?"

"Report to the warp room."

"And that is exactly where?"

"You forgot already?" Aurora nodded in reply. Hot Shot signed and said, "Follow me."

------

"When are those Autobots gonna hurry up and get here? I'm starting to get impatient!"

"You're always impatient, Cyclonus," Demolisher said.

"Megatron, **sir**, can we PLEASE gag him NOW?" Thrust asked. If Megatron head Thrust's plea, he made no movement to indicate that he had. Wheeljack walked over to Cyclonus, tapped him on the arm, and then said something quietly.

"How would you know?" Cyclonus asked loudly in contrast. Wheeljack made no verbal reply, but pointed to the sliced Autobot symbol on his chest. "Oh. Right," Cyclonus said, and then he was silent. Wheeljack returned to where he was previously.

"What did you say to him?" Starscream asked.

"I told him that no Autobot in their right mind would come near here if they could hear him shouting about how impatient he was to blow them up from a mile off."

"And then he asked..." Starscream let his voice trail off.

"Yep," the former Autobot said shortly. Starscream groaned and covered his face with his hand.

"That is truly amazing," the seeker said.

"What's amazing?" Aurora asked, almost seeming to pop up out of nowhere. "That what's-his-face over there could ask such a blatantly stupid question or that Wheeljack, despite his programming and experiences as a member of the Autobots, could come to such a blatantly wrong conclusion? I mean, look! I'm here, aren't I, and last time I checked, I was a perfectly sane Autobot."

The femme's comments were met with silence by the stunned Decepticons, until Wheeljack managed to force out an "Au-Aurora?"

The blue Autobot smiled at him and said, "What are you so surprised about? After all, I'm not the one here that's legally dead according to the Autobot files!"

"Oh, I'm legally dead now? When did I stop being missing in action?" the illegally alive Decepticon asked.

"Actually, you've been dead for a while. A few years now, I think."

"As interesting as discussing what stage of decomposition Wheeljack should be in right now might be to you two, I'm pretty sure that the rest of us are rather bored with it by now," Nexa said while pulling a popping up out of nowhere trick very similar to the one Aurora had used earlier. The blue Autobot began to protest, but Nexa quickly cut her off with "Oh, come on, you know you were about to." Aurora pouted a bit, but didn't reply. "Now, you do recall that our orders were to find the Mini-con, not the Decepticons, right?"

"Yeah, but I don't know what the Mini-con looks like, and the Decepticons were just oh-so easy to find, thanks to rotor-butt over there."

"Hmmm..." Nexa said, looking quite ponderous. "While both of your points are undeniable facts, neither is a suitable excuse for your presence here. After all, it's not like any of the these idiots knows where the Mini-con is, and even if they did, would they really tell you?"

"No, I guess not," Aurora answered.

It was right about then that Optimus tackled Megatron from behind and all hell broke loose.

------

Aurora shook her head as she watched Thrust plummet to the ground. It's just way too easy to beat that guy up, it truly is." The blue femme looked about absent-mindedly when something caught her attention. Specifically, something shiny sticking out of a cliff face. Aurora flew over to it and inspected the blue and green panel. "This must be the Mini-con!" she said optimistically. Then the Autobot grabbed a hold of the Mini-con panel and attempted to yank it out of the cliff. When that yielded no results, she yanked harder. After that attempt proved fruitless, she floated backwards and looked at the panel ponderously. "It's stuck in there pretty tight!" Then the femme flew off to the right as Starscream stabbed the air where she'd just been hovering. "Y'know, it's generally considered rude to try to stab someone when their back is turned," she said as the Decepticon pulled his sword out of the cliff. Aurora, having noticed that the Mini-con panel was slightly looser now, pointed at Starscream's sword and asked if she could borrow it for a minute.

Starscream looked at her confused for a bit, then said, "What? No!"

Aurora pouted a bit and sighed, then said, "Fine, fine. Just remember, I asked you nicely." She then punched the seeker in the nose. He instinctively threw his left hand up to his face, allowing Aurora to grab a hold of his sword and deliver him a solid kick to the abdomen. She shifted the sword, now firmly in her possession to her left hand and aimed the gun on her right arm at Starscream. "Are you going to play nice, or am I going to have to shoot you?" the femmebot asked. The seeker weighed his options and decided that Aurora had the clear upper hand and that attempting an attack would be really, really stupid. The blue Autobot took the look on Starscream's face to be a sort of acceptance of terms, smiled brightly at the Decepticon, and returned her attention to the Mini-con panel. With Starscream's sword acting as a lever and as a very convenient way to break up all the rocks and dirt holding the panel in place, Aurora quickly had the green and blue object out of the cliff face and firmly in the palm of her hand. Aurora turned to face Starscream again and tossed his sword back at him while saying, "Here, catch!" The seeker scrambled madly to catch his sword without sustaining any damage. "Thanks for not being a total idiot. It's very nice to know you have some semblance of honor. I was afraid it was extinct amongst Decepticons," Aurora said. Starscream found himself insulted, not by the claim that he had no honor, as most would expect out of such a high-ranking Decepticon, but rather the claim that the Decepticons as a whole were lacking it. The seeker attacked, and Aurora dodged to the side. He turned around and was about to launch another attack when his comm. link bristled to life with Megatron's order to surrender. Although Starscream was thankful that Megatron obviously had no plans to abandon him this time, he sighed inwardly. His honor would have to wait.

------

Hot Shot had not been acquainted with the red Mini-con Aurora held in her arms for more than five minutes, yet he already disliked him. These feelings were obviously mutual, as the Mini-con, whose alt mode was apparently some sort of truck, if the huge grill on his chest and large wheels on his shoulders were anything to go by, hurled a few more insults at the yellow Autobot. Aurora looked at Hot Shot, expecting a translation of the beeps coming out of the ever-smirking mouth that dominated the Mini-con's face underneath his shiny black visor. Hot Shot sighed and said, "His name's Piston and about every other word he says is an insult." Piston said something that Hot Shot sincerely wished he'd misinterpreted, or hadn't heard at all. "WHAT did you just call me?" Hot Shot asked, not even bothering to try to hide the insulted tone in his voice.

Nexa chuckled, turned to Aurora, and said, "Hey, when I get my hands on one of these Mini-cons, would you be willing to consider trading? I think I like this little guy!" Piston beeped and Hot Shot wondered if Nexa would still like the Mini-con if she could understand what it just said.

------

"Optimus! Optimus, sir! I need to talk to you! The Matrix-bearer turned to look at the medic.

"What is it, Red Alert?" Optimus asked as the blue Autobot caught up to him.

"I need to talk to you."

"So you've already informed me," Optimus said, slightly confused.

"I did? Oh, whoops. Sorry."

"Are you OK, Red Alert?"

"No, no, I'm not. That's why I need to talk to you. I'm not OK. I'm going nuts, crazy, insane, loosing my marbles, not right in the head, messed up, loony. Y'know, I only know so many different ways of saying this, you can show that you understand any time now!" Optimus' only reply was to nod silently, obviously frightened by the medic's tone. "Good," Red Alert continued. "Thankfully, this... condition is easily fixable. I just have to get out of here."

"You want to go back to Cybertron?" Optimus asked, not fully understanding.

"Oh, no, no, nothing that extreme. I can stay on Earth, no problem; I just need to get out of the base. Just bring me on the next mission, real simple."

"Can't you just go for a drive or something?"

"That's what's been keeping me sane thus far, but it doesn't work anymore. I've got the scenery around here memorized."

"Well, there has to be some other way, Red Alert. It's too dangerous to bring you on a mission. You're our only medic here, if you get slagged, who's going to repair you?"

"If I go nuts, who's going to repair you?" Red Alert countered. Optimus was silent, unable to think of a suitable reply to the medic's question. "So, it's decided then?"

Optimus shook his head and said, "I still think it's too dangerous and that you can figure something else out."

"Let me put it this way for you, Prime. While a dead medic's of no use to anyone, a dead medic can't hurt you. A crazy medic, well... That's another story completely."

"Are you threatening me?"

"Nonsense, sir! I'm just pointing out your options. I'd also like to add that although there's no guarantee I'll get slagged, it IS guaranteed that I'll go nuts. Your choice, sir."

"Gee, such a great choice," Optimus said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. Red Alert smiled at him and shrugged slightly.

"So?" he asked expectantly.

"I guess I'll have to let you come on the next mission. I just hope you stay relatively sane until then."

"Good!" the medic said, then he paused for a moment and a blank expression crossed over his face. "Was I talking to you, sir?" he asked.

"Umm... no," Optimus replied, rather unconvincingly.

"Oh," Red Alert said flatly, then an uncharacteristically broad smile crossed his face, he said, "OK then!" and left the rather confused leader of the Autobots. Optimus watched him go, and then continued down the hall, even though what just happened had made him forget where he was going. A short distance later, Smokescreen approached him.

"Umm, sir, would it be possible for me to have a word with you?" he asked.

"Red Alert's going nuts. I know. I'll deal with it, Smokescreen," Optimus said, not even allowing the shorter of the two a chance to bring the subject up.

"Oh," the orange Autobot said. "Never mind then. You've obviously got everything under control."

"Yeah," Optimus said to himself as Smokescreen departed. "I've got everything under control. Riiight."

-------

"Is there always a new Mini-con to be found every few days around here?" Aurora asked, as the Mini-con signal blared to life.

"Sometimes," Hot Shot answered. "There's really no set rhythm to it, sometimes it's a few weeks between Mini-cons."

"A hectic schedule, then? Rapture," Aurora said sarcastically. She followed Hot Shot to the warp room again, even though she knew the way now. When they arrived Aurora was surprised to find Red Alert there. She had assumed that he always stayed at the base with the strange, little creatures Hot Shot fondly referred to as "the kids." She should've known better than to base anything off of a mere two missions. Aurora was also reminded of a phrase one of "the kids" had used about assuming. She couldn't remember exactly what it was, but she remembered it had something to do with a donkey, a low, stubborn, ill-tempered Earth creature. Then she remembered that a donkey represented a certain large group of people, and she wondered why anybody would take pride in being represented by such a disagreeable animal. It was about then that Aurora realized her mind was wandering. She brought it back on track just in time to get back into the loop before anyone realized she'd been out of it. She noted that Scavenger was missing and figured that he was taking Red Alert's place watching "the kids."

After the Autobots launched, Aurora inspected their new surroundings. It appeared that they were in some sort of forest. Aurora sighed inwardly. She was getting tired of tress. "Alright, men. And femmes," Optimus said, earning an approving nod from Nexa. "We've got a lot of land to cover here. It is imperative that we find this Mini-con before the Decepticons do. In order to achieve this goal in the most efficient manner, I believe we should search the area in groups. Jetfire and I will head north, Hot Shot, Blurr, and Sideswipe will head east, Nexa and Smokescreen will head south, and Red Alert and Aurora will go west. Any questions?"

"Ooh, I do!" Red Alert, who was inspecting a tree while Optimus was issuing orders, said, his attention finally caught by the last things Optimus said.

"WTF?" Aurora exclaimed, earning herself more than just a few stares. "What?" she asked.

"I'm... not going to ask," Optimus said.

"Good idea," Nexa agreed.

"Sir, I've got a complaint!" Red Alert said.

"What is it, Red Alert?" Optimus asked. "What's the problem here? You're obviously both nuts." Red Alert couldn't see Optimus' mouth through his faceplate, but he had the suspicious feeling that Optimus was grinning. "Well, we've got a Mini-con to find! Let's go, Jetfire!"

"Have fun, guys!" Jetfire said cheerily, waving as he followed Optimus north.

------

"Y'know, I'm not enjoying this anymore than you are," Aurora said, glaring at the medic.

"No one accused you of that," Red Alert said calmly, not making eye contact.

"You're thinking it."

"That's ridiculous. I'm too busy looking for the Mini-con to worry about whether or not you're enjoying yourself. And you should be too busy to worry about what I'm thinking," Red Alert retorted.

"I can multi-task," the femme shot back.

While searching for a proper comeback, Red Alert glanced into a cave and noticed a small flash of green. "The Mini-con!"

"The Mini-con? Where?" Aurora asked Red Alert made his way over to the cave and entered it. The femme halted at the entrance. "In there?" she asked. The medic turned and looked at her.

"Yes, in here. I saw something green."

"Are, are you sure?"

"I'm sure enough to check it out. Why?" Red Alert asked.

"Die, Autobots!" Cyclonus shouted, shooting madly at the pair before Aurora had a chance to answer Red Alert's question. One of his shots managed to connect with the top of the cave's entrance, causing a landslide.

"What out!" Red Alert shouted, and without even thinking about it, grabbed hold of Aurora's arm, then dragged her inside the cave, just before everything went black.

------

"So, how's everyone at the bar?" Smokescreen asked, desperate to break the silence.

"Hmm? Oh, right. They're all pretty OK. It's really quiet without you and Jetfire there, though. Could you not tell him I said that, it'll enlarge his already over-inflated ego," Nexa replied.

"No problem."

Silence settled over them again, then Nexa asked, "Are you OK? Something seems to be bothering you."

"Nah, I'm fine. I'm just worried about Red Alert," the orange Autobot answered.

"The medic? Why?"

"I'm not really at liberty to say, Red would kill me. Naw, he wouldn't kill me, he'd figure out something worse to do. I know better than to tick off a medic. Bad things happen. I shouldn't have even brought it up."

"OK, then," Nexa said with a shrug. "It's nice to see that unlike Jetfire, you're mildly tolerable when sober."

"'Mildly tolerable?'" Smokescreen asked. "I'm only 'mildly tolerable?'"

"Hey, you should be proud. Only two 'bots are better off than 'mildly tolerable.' One of them's Aurora. The other one's dead."

"Oh, gee, that's bright and cheery," Smokescreen said sarcastically. Nexa shrugged.

"What's this?" Nexa asked, picking something up off the ground.

"That would be the Mini-con. It'd probably be a good idea to report that," Smokescreen replied.

"Really? 'Cuz I was just going to let everybody keep on looking for it, while I went back to the base," Nexa said, before activating her comm. link.

------

Consciousness returned to Red Alert slowly, and it had decided to bring its friend Whomping Big Headache with it. The medic became aware of some noise on his comm. link decided it would probably be a good idea to listen to it.

"I repeat, we have found the Mini-con," Nexa said over the comm. link, listing her co-ordinates. This was followed by the sound of lasers being fired.

"I suggest you get here quick, because the Decepticons have just found us!" Smokescreen added, sounding slightly panicked.

"We'll be right there," Optimus said. He started to say something else, but Red Alert was compelled into shutting his comm. link off by Whomping Big Headache. He finally bothered to take notice of his surroundings, and noticed that there really wasn't much to take notice of. The medic wondered why his night vision wasn't functioning, and then he noticed that Whomping Big Headache had taken residence right where his night vision should've been. He groaned inwardly, as that was the kind of damage that wasn't easily repairable. AT least it wasn't something terribly important. The medic then took notice of some snicker-like beeping.

"What are you laughing at?" he asked the Mini-con calmly.

-"Can'cha see? Ain'cha got night vision?"- Piston asked.

"It's malfunctioning," Red Alert said, not bother to point out the grammatical errors in Piston's questions.

-"Oh. Well, then, I guess I'll hafta show you,"- Piston said, transforming and activating his headlights. Red Alert's optic took a minute to adjust to the sudden brightness after the darkness. After the adjustment, what Red Alert saw scared the proverbial pants off him. He rolled off of Aurora as Piston turned his headlights off and transformed back to robot mode. The Mini-con also promptly resumed laughing. As if that wasn't bad enough, Whomping Big Headache was sill bothering the medic. Regardless, Red Alert forced himself to sit up. A pair of soft blue glows from Aurora's optics next to him showed that the femme was conscious.

"Are you OK?" Red Alert asked her.

"Uh, uhm, y-yeah. Sure," the femme replied quietly.

"That didn't sound very convincing," the medic said, as the glow from Aurora's optics moved upwards and away from Red Alert, towards a wall.

-"She's scared of the dark,"- Piston observed.

"What?" Red Alert asked.

-"Oh, that's right. YOU can't see. Well, she's definitely scared. Heck, I'd go so far as ta say she's absolutely panicked witless."-

"Why?"

-"Geez, I thought ya was a medic! Do I gotta 'splain EVERYTHING ta ya? She's OBVIOUSLY just as blind as you are. Dunno why, though, she didn't get nailed by a big ass rock like ya did."-

"Well, if you know everything, YOU do something about it!"

-"I will,"- Piston said decisively. He approached the femme, and once again transformed and activated his headlights. Red Alert saw from the look on her face that Piston had been right about her being terrified. After the Mini-con turned his lights on, her expression softened, but she kept her knees pressed to her chest.

"What's wrong?" Red Alert asked.

"I, I don't like the dark," Aurora said softly, her tone having changed drastically from what it had been outside.

"Why not?"

Aurora was silent for a while, then sighed and looked upwards at the roof of the cave. "When I was younger, before I joined the army, I wanted to see how the Energon distribution system worked."

"Wait, you went down THERE? Not only is that illegal, that's really dangerous!"

"Yeah, my sister told me the exact same thing. But I wouldn't listen. I was too stubborn, and even more curious."

"Curiosity killed the petro-rabbit," Red Alert said. Aurora chuckled humorlessly.

"Oh, you don't need to tell me that, trust me. My sister keeps petro-rabbits, and I've seen curiosity get the better of more than one of them. Usually using of machine I've built or another, which is why she kicked me out and I'm currently boarding with Nexa. Anyways, back on subject. Despite all the warnings and whatnot, I went down to investigate. Took Borealis, that's my sister, of course, down with me, just to prove that her worries were unfounded. Oh, yeah. They were unfounded, all right. I wish they were," the femme said, sighing. "We got separated, Borealis and I, and, ah, while I was wandering about looking for her, I tripped down a flight of stairs. When, when I woke up, my head hurt, and I, I couldn't see anything. I co-could HEAR things, but I couldn't SEE them, I couldn't tell, tell what they were. I couldn't even MOVE, I, I was so scared. I just, just sat there, scared, in, in the dark, waiting for somebody, ANYBODY, to, to come find me, for, for, Primus, I don't even know how, how long I sat there, but, it, it felt like forever. I just sat there, and I wa-was s-so s-sca-SCARED!" Aurora started another sentence, but she suddenly stopped, buried her head in her arms, and would not say another word.

-"Well..."- Piston said slowly, -"That was certainly different than a big ass rock."- Red Alert gawked at the Mini-con for a moment, very glad the femme couldn't understand what he'd said, and then slowly got to his feet. Whomping Big Headache protested madly to this action, but the medic ignored it.

He walked over to Aurora sat down beside her, and said, "I'm sorry."

Aurora didn't lift her head from her hands as she asked, "For what?"

"For dragging you into this." With a small chuckle, Red Alert added, "Literally."

The femme looked straight at him and said, "If you hadn't dragged me in here, I'd probably be dead right now."

-"She's got a point, ya know? If one big ass rock knocked out yer entire night vision, imagine what that huge pile would do ta her,"- Piston added.

Aurora continued talking, Piston's statement no more than meaningless beeps to her, "Besides what about the Mini-con?"

Red Alert sighed, "It's not here. Smokescreen and Nexa found it. Whatever I saw, it wasn't a Mini-con."

"Oh," Aurora said, and without even really noticing it, lad her head on Red Alert's shoulder. The medic, however, noticed it immediately and quickly moved away from the femme.

Silence descended over the cave fore a while, then Piston asked, -"Is anybody gonna do something about getting' us outta here?"-

"Hmm, the Mini-con's got a point," Red Alert observed.

"What did he say?" Aurora asked.

The medic got to his feet again and said, "He asked why we're still sitting here and not doing anything to get out of here."

The femme didn't budge from her curled up position against the wall, but rather responded quietly, "It's dark."

Red Alert looked up at the ceiling of the cave and sighed. He shut off his optic in thought. Then he reactivated it and sighed again. The medic offered Aurora his hand and said, "Sometimes, there are things that are more important than being afraid. There are things that you have to do, that you don't know if you can do, but it doesn't matter, because you have to do them anyway. And there's a lot of things, that once you try, turn out to be a lot easier than you originally thought."

Aurora looked up at him and asked, "Are you lecturing me?"

"This is as much for me as it is for you," Red Alert said cryptically. "Now, come on, take my hand. Let me help you." Aurora looked up at him silently for a while, and then took his hand. He hoisted her to her feet. To Aurora's surprise, the medic did not let go of her hand the moment she was on her feet. Instead, he smiled at her and said, "Good. Now let's get out of here. It shouldn't take too terribly long."

"Red Alert?"

"What?"

"Thank you. And could you not tell anyone about this?"

"Sure."

"Thanks," Aurora was silent for a moment, and then said, "Hey, red?"

"What?"

"You've got such a nice smile. You should use it more often." Red Alert did not respond.

------

Nexa quietly cursed a blue streak to herself as she searched about on her hands and knees for the Mini-con. She hoped that it hadn't been damaged. The femme had already begun to activate the Mini-con when Megatron shot it out of her hand. Without even thinking about it, she had gone after it. She felt a little guilty about leaving Smokescreen to fend for himself, but then again, she had seen him fight drunk before on more than one occasion, she was sure he'd be able to take care of himself well enough while sober. There was a rustling in some bushes and Nexa froze, trying to pinpoint where the sound had come from. She needn't have wasted her energy as a creature prowled out from the brush in front of her. It looked like an Earth creature, a big cat of some sort, but it was undoubtedly made of metal, and the wheels on its front legs and its back gave it away as a transformer. As if Nexa needed more proof, it made an odd noise, some sort of a cross between some beeps and some meows. The femme extended her hand to it in what she hoped was a non-threatening manner. The cat-like transformer looked at it for a moment, then approached, making more odd sounds. Nexa wasn't sure why, but she took a liking to the strange Mini-con, and she stroked its head as she talked to it. "Can you transform?" The Mini-con nodded happily and transformed into a miniature Indy racecar. "What about robot mode?" The Mini-con transformed back into a cat and cocked its head in confusion. Nexa figured that its strange oddities were the result of being damaged mid-activation. She picked the small, black transformer up, and made her way back to where she had originally found the Mini-con's panel. The femme was surprised to find no Decepticons there.

"Thanks for all your help, Nexa," Smokescreen said sarcastically.

"Yeah, we couldn't have done it without you!" Jetfire added.

"Well, sheesh, excuse me for recovering the Mini-con!" Nexa shot back. Hot Shot inspected the Mini-con closely.

"Hi there, little guy. My name's Hot Shot, what's yours?"

-"Blitz-cat likes Hot Shot-cat!"- The Mini-con decided cheerily.

"Blitz? Is that your name?" The cat-like transformer nodded in reply, and made some more meow-beeps. "He wants to know your name," Hot Shot said to the femme.

"It's Nexa," she said to the Mini-con.

-"Blitz-cat likes Nexa-cat a lot!"-

"He says he likes you a lot. I can't imagine why though," the self-appointed translator said. Before Nexa could reply, though, Aurora and Red Alert arrived at last.

"What took you two so long?" Jetfire asked.

"Well, umm... y'see..." Aurora started.

"Knowing Aurora, she got distracted somewhere," Nexa interjected.

"Thanks. I owe you one," Aurora whispered.

"Hey, no problem. You'll have to tell me what really happened later, though," Nexa muttered back.

"Oh, but of course." Aurora then added louder, "So, about that Mini-con trade you were talking about earlier?"

Nexa looked down at Blitz and answered, "No, I don't think I will."

"Good, because I don't really want to get rid of Piston. Right, so... I'm sill at 2.5, and you're...?"

"Still stuck at .5," Nexa replied, sounding annoyed.

"Bad week, huh?"

"A VERY bad week."

"Hey, are you two going to stand there and gossip all day or can we go back to base?" Jetfire asked.

"Hey, we can gossip just as well back at the base. We've been waiting for YOU! Let's go already!" Nexa answered.

-----

AF: ::Beams:: I'm such a hopeless romantic!

Red Alert: ... -.-

Aurora: ::Glares::

AF: What?


	4. Glitch

Disclaimer: If you think I own Transformers, you need help. Lots of it.

--------

"He's a traitor, Aurora," Nexa said flatly.

The blue femme shook her head. "He is not!"

"He was an Autobot and now he's a Decepticon. How does this not equal him being a traitor?"

"He never betrayed anyone. He didn't give the Decepticons any secrets or shoot anyone in the back or anything!"

"He shot Hot Shot in the front, doesn't that count for something, Aurora?"

"Oh, please! I know that you don't believe that Wheeljack could miss fatally wounding someone from that range anymore than I do!"

"So he's still vehemently against murder, what's your point?"

"What's my point? He's still fiercely against murder! He hasn't changed!"

"He changed sides, that's enough change for me."

"Nexa, you don't understand! He—" Nexa cut Aurora off.

"No, Aurora. You're the one that doesn't understand. There's one thing worse than a Decepticon, and that's a Decepticon that used to be an Autobot. Despite any aspects of his personal character, Wheeljack falls into that category. He is a TRAITOR, Aurora. And traitors cannot be allowed. Period. End of story. Any questions?" Aurora stared silently at here and Nexa stared right back as she opened the door to the room they'd been in and walked out, promptly colliding with Hot Shot. The yellow Autobot stumbled backwards a bit, then turned tail and ran from the two femmes.

"Hot Shot!" Aurora shouted after him. The younger transformer, however, continued running down the hall.

Nexa grumbled as she brushed herself off and asked, "What's his problem?"

"Do you think it might have something to do with what we were discussing?" Aurora asked back disapprovingly, her arms crossed. Nexa didn't answer as she stared down the hall.

------

Hot Shot desperately wished he could tell whether or not Scavenger was awake. He wished that the large, green Autobot currently sitting with his back against one of the large crates that littered the room with his head down on his chest, hadn't dragged him into a training session. The frustrated Autobot threw some swift punches into the air, his mind not really in his actions. He had enough to worry about as it was, and what he really wanted to be doing at the moment was sitting alone somewhere and sorting out his thoughts. Instead, his thoughts were piling on him like snow. Very, very heavy snow. So heavy that the sudden punch in the gut he received from Scavenger couldn't knock them off.

"You're not paying attention, Hot Shot!" Scavenger observed, irate. "Now, come on, get back on your feet." Thoroughly annoyed by his hulking instructor, Hot Shot slowly got to his feet. He immediately wished he hadn't, as a searing pain shot all through his head, and then was replaced by an overwhelming fuzziness. "Hot Shot? Hot Shot!" Scavenger lunged forward to catch the unresponsive youth as he collapsed. The green Autobot shook Hot Shot, but when he showed absolutely no sign of waking up soon, Scavenger hoisted him over his shoulder and carried him down to the med bay, cursing all the way.

------

"What's wrong with Hot Shot? You have to know, Red Alert, you've been in there all day!" Aurora demanded.

"Yes, I know what's wrong with Hot Shot," Red Alert replied.

"So what is it?" the blue femme asked impatiently.

"Can I sit down first?" the medic asked back.

"Fine. But hurry up," Aurora said, allowing Red Alert to take a seat with the other Autobots and taking a seat herself.

"Well?" Optimus asked, only slightly better at hiding his impatience than Aurora.

"Well, sir, Hot Shot has a glitch."

"For Primus's sake, Red, we've figured that much out already!" Jetfire interrupted. "Tell us something we don't know, why don'cha?"

"Jetfire, you idiot, he's not done yet. Let him finish," Nexa said.

"Thank you. As I was saying. Hot Shot has a glitch, specifically, Glitch A-B-B-A, better known as the Chiasmus Glitch.**1** Judging by the blank looks on your faces, most of you have never even heard of it, which is understandable, because it's pretty rare. At least, there aren't that many proven cases, as, really, the only symptom of the glitch is fainting under severe stress. Well, it starts out as under severe stress, gradually, the required amount of stress goes down, and –"

"Woah, woah, woah! Slow down!" Jetfire interrupted again. "I can only handle so much info at once! Go slowly, please!"

"Erm, what do you mean when you say 'glitch?'" Rad asked.

Red Alert sighed and explained, "A glitch is, quite simply, a slight error in a transformer's programming."

"Red Alert's recent escapade into insanity is a good example of a glitch," Aurora added, smiling.

The medic glared at the femme, then continued, "Glitches are a very diverse group. Some glitches are automatically corrected once they occur, and thus only occur once. Some are permanent, and a few glitches only occur once, because they're fatal. Some glitches barely affect a transformer's life, some of them define what one can and cannot do, and a few are, as previously noted, fatal. Mostly glitches are in the programming from the very beginning of a transformer's life, but they can be caused by severe head trauma."

"So, what kind of glitch does Hot Shot have?" Alexis asked, apparently the only kid still paying any attention.

"Ah, yes, the glitch Hot Shot has," Red Alert said. "Glitch A-B-B-A, the Chiasmus Glitch. It's a pretty nasty one. It's chronic, but it changes over time. You see, in order for the Chiasmus Glitch to activate for the first time, an extremely large amount of stress is required. The victim spends a long amount of time offline, and they take a long time to recover. The second time the Chiasmus Glitch is activated, less time is spent offline and in recovery, but less stress is required for it to activate and so on and so on. It's possible for it to eventually reach the point where barely any stress is required for the glitch to activate, but the victim only spends a few minutes offline and in recovery. At that point, any large amount of stress could prove to be fatal."

"So, what you're saying is this glitch could kill him, and even if it doesn't, he'll have to ritire early because of it?" Optimus asked.

"Very early. Usually, 'bots with the Chiasmus Glitch are around my age when the glitch activates for the first time, and they usually end up retiring early," Red Alert replied.

"Red Alert?"

"Yes, sir?"

"This isn't good. This is not good."

"I know, sir."

--------

Red Alert watched Aurora type things into the large computer in the control room. Although he was pretty sure he knew what she was doing, he asked anyway. The femme swiveled her chair about to face him, smiled brightly and simply said, "Finishing." She turned back around and resumed typing.

Red Alert sighed and asked, "Finishing what?"

"New firewalls," Aurora replied shortly, not bothering to even look away from the monitor this time.

"What do we need new firewalls for?" the medic asked, despite having a good guess at what the answer would be.

"Well, the ones you made are so obviously inept, since wot's –his-face managed to hack through them."

"Sideways."

"Eh?"

"'Wot's-his-face,' I believe it was. His name's Sideways. And my firewalls are not inept."

"Oh, his name. It's not important. And don't you try to, 'my firewalls are not inept' me. Wot's-his-face hacked through them TWICE, didn't he? You can't hack in twice on just dumb luck. Your firewalls are inept."

"They weren't the same set of firewalls," Red Alert said, regretting it even before Aurora retorted.

"You idiotic medic!" Aurora yelled, swiveling to face him again. "That's WORSE! Arrrgh, you medics make my head hurt. Is it REALLY that hard to think logically? Just stand back and let a techie handle this, OK?"

"Oooh… Burn!" Billy said. Carlos snickered as Alexis rolled her eyes and sighed.

Red Alert dutifully ignored the commentary and asked, "So, you're a techie?"

"Again, is thinking logically really that hard?"

"That's rather ironic, coming from someone who never seems to act in a logical manner."

"I never act in a logical manner, do I? You are such a medic. Any half-decent techie could tell you that the laws of logic are applied differently when pertaining to people, depending on the personal character of the 'bot in question. What makes perfect logical sense to me might terribly confuse you and what might seem logical to you might seem completely illogical to me. Like, say, why you continue to prevent me from finishing this last firewall. In other words, shut up and let me do my job, please." Having finished her onslaught, the femme turned back to her work. Red Alert glowered briefly, then left quietly.

"What was that all about?" Alexis asked.

"Well, he's a medic and she's a techie," Smokescreen explained shortly.

"I gathered that much, but why does it matter?"

"Hmm, let's see if I can explain this. Y'see, medics and techies are, quite frankly, very similar. However, there is enough difference between the two to be noteworthy. Y'see, medics specialize in fixing broken transformers while techies specialize in building and fixing machines."

"Isn't that nearly the exact same thing, though?" Alexis asked.

"Yeah, a lot of people make that mistake, which is probably why medics and techies feel that it's necessary to argue all the time. Although generally medics can do a bit of techie work and techies can do a bit of medic work, the skills and stuff you need for either field are so different that no matter how good a medic is at techie stuff, an actual techie can do it better and vice versa. Medics and techies don't argue out of hate or anything like that, they just have different views on the way things work."

"Ah, there we go. Finished," Aurora said, closing the window she was working in and leaning back in here chair and stretching.

"Finished already? That was quick," Smokescreen noted.

"Not really. I've been working on this on and off since I got here. They're very complex firewalls," Aurora replied as the Mini-con signal went off.

"Huh. Good timing," Smokescreen said.

--------

Optimus surveyed the Autobots gathered in the warp room and noted that he was missing one more soldier than he should have been. "Where's Sideswipe?" the Matrix-bearer asked.

"H'es in the med by with Hot Shot. Do you want me to go get him, sir?" Blurr asked.

Prime shook hi head and said, "No, it's all right, Blurr, let him be. He'll be safe here. Let's go."

After the warp, Aurora noted that the rocky environment was a pleasant change from all the trees she'd encountered previously. The blue femme surveyed the rock formations, searching for the telltale green glimmer of a Mini-con. "I'm going to catch up with you today, Aurora, I can feel it," Nexa said.

Aurora laughed and replied, "Good luck with that. You'll have to slag two Decepticons in a row to catch up, and that's assuming I don't slag anybody."

"Well, maybe I'll finally get a little lucky. Law of averages, y'know?"

"Yeah, maybe. Just try not to do anything too stupid, Nexa."

"What? Me do something stupid? What a ridiculous concept, Aurora!" Nexa said, pretending to be hurt.

"Sure it is."

"You two do realize that the objective is to find a Mini-con, not slag Decepticons, right?" Scavenger asked the two femmes.

"Oh, sure we do!" Aurora replied, smiling at the large green 'bot.

"Doesn't mean we're not going to slag Decepticons anyway," Nexa added.

"It is part of what we do, after all," Aurora continued.

"Just like finding Mini-cons."

"And we've been slagging Decepticons longer."

"Plus we're good multi-taskers," Nexa said.

"Yeah, we can do both at once!"

"But apparently, you can't talk and do both all at once," Scavenger pointed out. The two femmes quickly clamed up and Aurora smiled sheepishly.

"Finally, they're quiet!" Jetfire exclaimed. "Maybe now we can get something done!" Nexa glared sourly at him, but refrained from speaking.

"May I speak now?" Optimus asked Jetfire in a very exasperated tone of voice.

"Uhh, sure, sir. Go ahead," Jetfire replied, slightly embarrassed.

"Thank you. Your orders, quite simply, are to recover the Mini-con before the Decepticons do," the Matrix-bearer said. "And to avoid conflict if at all possible," he added, shooting the two femmes a pointed look.

"What? You're not going to divvy us up like you did last time?" Nexa asked.

"No need to," Optimus said simply, shrugging slightly.

"Works for me!" Aurora said brightly, taking off and transforming.

The blue jet soared around for a while, not finding anything of interest, until she noticed something moving amongst the rocks. She swooped back around to get a closer look and realized that it was Wheeljack. The femme transformed, landed neatly beside the Decepticon, and greeted him.

"Aurora? What are you doing here?" he asked.

"Aww, come on, Wheeljack, think for a minute, will you? Why are you here?"

"Oh," Wheeljack said shortly.

"Yeah. Way to go. You're about as bad at logic as Red Alert."

"But why are you talking to me?" the ex-Autobot asked.

"Well, why shouldn't I?" Aurora asked.

"Because, Aurora, I'm a Decepticon, in case you didn't notice. I'm not on your side anymore."

The blue femme pouted slightly and said, "Well, there goes my entire argument."

"Your argument?"

"Yeah. My argument with Nexa about you. Oh, and speaking of Nexa, you may want to avoid her at all costs, since she's out for you head to begin with and not in a particularly good mood right now. Not that anybody's in much of a good mood right now, and understandably so, but still…"

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why isn't anybody in a good mood?"

"Oh. It's, uh, Hot Shot. He's got a pretty nasty glitch."

"Is he OK?" Wheeljack asked, not bothering to hide the concern in his voice.

"For now, maybe. For the long haul, definitely not. Like I said, it's a pretty nasty glitch."

"For now, maybe?"

"He's comatose. While it's more likely than not that he'll come out of it, there's still that chance that he'll just not wake up."

"Well, it's not like it makes any difference to me whether he lives or dies. He probably deserves it, anyway," Wheeljack said, putting on a mask of cold indifference.

"How can you say that, Wheeljack?" Aurora asked, shocked.

"In case you hadn't heard, he abandoned me, Aurora."

"'Abandoning,' huh? Is that what they're calling it these days? Well, silly, old-fashioned me. I would've called it 'risking his life and his career, two of the most important things he's got, just to try and help you.'"

"What are you talking about?" the young Decepticon asked, genuinely confused.

"You don't know? Oh, of course you don't know! Hot Shot's too busy blaming himself for the whole thing to consider letting you form your own opinion that might contradict his! You only know what you saw yourself! Oh, no wonder you think he'd abandoned you! I'd probably think the same thing if I was you!"

"Aurora, what are you blabbering on about?"

"You don't know what happened to Hot Shot after he 'abandoned' you! 'Cuz I can assure you that he definitely didn't go home and forget you ever existed. Y'see, he managed to make his way out of the fire to Triquet and Wheelie. (Nexa and I were elsewhere at this time.) But rather than getting help from them like Hot Shot was hoping for, Triquet informed him that the fire was too dangerous and strictly forbade him from going back in. Naturally, Hot Shot acknowledged his orders, then went back in for you anyway. Not that Triquet didn't at least try to forcefully detain him, but Hot Shot can be pretty stubborn when he wants to be. Nexa and I found him unconscious later after the fire died out. It's a miracle he survived at all. And if it weren't for Optimus, he would've been court-martialed for disobeying direct orders, which, really, probably would've been even worse for him. I wouldn't be very keen on calling that 'abandoning' you, would you?"

Wheeljack paused to let it all soak in, only to have his thought process interrupted by Megatron issuing the order to retreat. "I have to go now," the Decepticon informed Aurora.

She nodded and said, "Alright, but think about it, will you?"

"Sure," Wheeljack replied as he warped out. Aurora took off and flew back towards where she came from until Nexa waved her down.

"What are you so happy about?" the blue femme asked, noticing the cocky grin plastered on her friend's face.

"2.5, Aurora. 2.5. And 2 to 1," Nexa displayed the Mini-con panel in her hand as she added the last remark.

"No way!" Aurora exclaimed. "How?"

"I got a little lucky," the black-and-gold femme explained simply. Aurora pouted. "I suppose you didn't slag anybody, then?"

"Not a one."

Nexa's smile expanded as she said, "Even better."

---------

"I do hope you've got good news, Thrust. I am not in the mood to be disappointed, and you are a lot more disposable than you think you are," Megatron said sourly, sitting on his throne, staring flatly at the tactician standing in front of him.

"Oh, I've got very good news, sir," Thrust replied.

"I suppose your mission was successful, then?"

Thrust had no visible mouth, but the glimmer in his optics suggested a sly grin as he said, "Very successful," and stepped to the side, revealing the Space team huddled together.

The Decepticon leader nodded his approval and said, "Yes, very nice, Thrust."

Further dialogue was interrupted by the hissing sound of a door opening and Wheeljack entering the throne room. "Am I interrupting something, sir?" he asked meekly.

"No, Wheeljack, come in," Megatron answered, glad to be spared from Thrust's inevitable bragging. Decepticons, regardless of supposed intelligence, were really all quite the same in their manner. Megatron supposed that that was why he'd kept Wheeljack around so far; he'd found the Autobot's attitude to be a refreshing change from the norm. Megatron wasn't quite sure how to fully manipulate Wheeljack yet, but he'd found that Wheeljack, by nature, required less manipulation than his other soldiers anyway.

"Sir, I have a question," Wheeljack said.

"Which is?" Megatron asked.

"Why did you save me in that fire?"

"What brings this up?" Megatron asked, obviously displeased with the question.

"Aurora told me some things I didn't know. It made me think. It's not important. I probably shouldn't have even asked. The humans have a phrase, 'never look a gift horse in the mouth.' I'll just be leaving now," Wheeljack said quietly, quickly leaving the throne room.

After the young Decepticon had made his exit, Megatron looked at Thrust and asked, "I suppose you know who Aurora is, Thrust?"

"The blue femme? Yes, sir."

"Good. I want you to pay close attention to Wheeljack the next time we encounter the Autobots, and if you see him talking to Aurora again, I want you to dispose of her accordingly. Got it?"

The tactician nodded and said, "Yes, sir."

----------

"Y'know, it's generally considered to be good manners to apologize after you nearly run somebody over," Aurora said disapprovingly, entering the control room and glaring at Red Alert, who was hurriedly typing things into the computer and paying absolutely no attention to the femme. She approached him and asked, "So, what's the problem?"

Red Alert paused the security video he was rewinding and said, "When I got to the med bay I found Sideswipe knocked out and I didn't find the Requiem Blaster Mini-cons at all. I wouldn't judge that as being a good sign."

"Is Sideswipe OK?"

"Yeah, he'll be fine, it's a minor injury. It's the Requiem Blaster I'm worried about. That's the kind of power we don't want in Decepticon hands."

"It's really powerful, then?" Aurora asked.

"Insanely so."

"So why haven't we used it yet? Does it steal your spark or some other severe repercussion that I'm unaware of?"

"No, it's just that the Mini-cons that form the gun don't like being used."

"Who would?"

"Yeah, but that won't matter if the Decepticons have them, which is why I'm worried about it."

"Assuming that the Decepticons did get them, then how?"

"That's what I'm trying to figure out," the medic said, resuming rewinding the tape. Aurora watched silently until Sideswipe appeared on the monitor and Red Alert allowed the recording to play forward until shortly after Sideswipe exited the screen, at which point the white-and-blue Autobot paused it. "I'm pretty sure I know who it was, but it never hurts to be sure." Red Alert typed something into the computer and the video took on a greenish tint and Thrust appeared on the screen. "Now, the question is, how'd he manage to get in here without triggering the alarm?" the medic asked, completely talking to himself by now.

"Let me see something," Aurora said. The sudden interruption startled Red Alert, but he allowed the femme to take over the keyboard. She hastily typed in a few commands and stared at what came up on the screen. The blue femme then quickly took a seat, shaking her head and muttering the word "no" over and over again. Seeking an explanation for her strange behavior, Red Alert inspected the data displayed on the computer and noted that Aurora had missed upgrading the firewalls on the alarm system.

----------

**1** A chiasmus is a Latin poetic device. Basically, it's a series of 4 words in which the first and last word match in part of speech and the 2 words in the middle match in part of speech, or something similar (An ABBA sequence). An English chiasmus would be something like "a score keeper keeps score."


End file.
